hey, tomorrow night, this morning on "early today," partisan play. senate republicans block the efforts to repeal the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. fair or foul? the florida pastor who planned a koran burning is asked to foot a huge bill for security. and texas tangle. a bus ride turns into a brawl between two women with infants. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pick time zone. i'm amara sohn.

today we begin with a no-go on don't ask, don't tell. a move by senate democrats to repeal the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed services fell short yesterday. it was blocked by republicans with some claiming democrats were using the issue to score political points. steve handelsman has more. >> i stand here today on two good legs again as a proud, gay marine. >> reporter: democrats rolled out their big guns. eric alfa, one of the first warriors hurt in the war. >> someone who served in battle and others new i was gay and it did not matter. >> reporter: alva got a medical discharge, but since don't ask, don't tell took effect in 1993, 13,000 men and women have been kicked out of the military. >> but it's long past time to repeal this policy, which is both unjust, un-american and extremely hurtful to the effectiveness of our military. >> reporter: but republicans blocked the vote. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> reporter: john mccain opposes

repeal. >> the senate goes down this path we would be ignoring the views of the troops an casting aside the professional military advice given by each of the four service chiefs. >> reporter: in fact, just before president obama awarded a medal of honor to the marine he's chosen to keep in command of the corps said, don't let gays serve openly yet. >> we're not quite sure what the impact would be. >> reporter: a bigger blow came from susan collins who backs repeal. >> now is not the time to play politics simply because an election is looming in a few weeks. >> this ain't over. >> reporter: democrats are vowing to fight on. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, capitol hill. >> and as steve just mentioned, president obama awarded the

medal of honor to a military hero more than four decades after he lost his life in service to his country. at a white house ceremony yesterday, air force chief master sergeant richard etchberger's three sons accepted the nation's highest honor on their father's behalf. etchberger died on a top secret mission in vietnam back in 1968, rescues men under heavy fire. that eventually claimed his life. the white house has announced that president obama's top economic adviser plans to leave his post by the end of the year. lawrence summers is stepping down as director of the national economic council to return to a teaching job at harvard university. summers had initially agreed to the white house role for at just one year. president obama thanked summers for his service during what he called a time of great peril to the country. now only treasury secretary timothy geithner remains from

the president's original top economic team. president obama will head to new york today to attend the u.n. general assembly. tomorrow he'll walk a fine line regarding iran in a broad based foreign policy speech. yesterday, mahmoud ahmadinejad warned it could spark a war that would "know no limits." president obama plans to leave the door open to talks with iran. ahmadinejad told reporters yesterday u.s. sanctions have damaged the chance for improved relations. now here's a look at some stories, other stories making news early today in america -- newly released video show as growing problem in san antonio. violence breaking out in city buses. in this case, a woman who had a newborn strapped to her chest is seen taking a swing at a woman who had a small child nearby. other riders screamed for the woman to stop, but the woman

with the baby keeps throwing more punches. to combat such behavior, the city recently announced a code of conduct for riders. in minnesota, three firefighters were hurt following a fire and subsequent explosion at a local power plant. the blast was strong enough to blow out one side of a corrugated steel building. fortunately, all the injuries were minor. tinkerbell is the latest celebrity to get her latest star on hollywood hall of fame. pixie dust showered the iconic character from "peter pan." and in new york, a diamond jewelry set that belonged to england's diana princess of wales will be auctioned off this week. ed necklace and earrings featured dozens of diamonds a valued at over a quarter million dollars. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is bill karins with a look at your forecast. good morning, bill. >> obvious, rather go diamonds or pearls? >> diamonds are a girl's best

friend. you know that. >> you can combine them all and be like princess diana. talk about yesterday. a rather cool day in the pacific northwest. kind of cloudy. didn't get a lot of sunshine. 65 in seattle. 66 in medford with one last hot day in arizona. 103 in phoenix. that ended your string of record high or near record highs. much cooler. we have tropical moisture coming up here from the south. actually a tropical depression down there in mexico. some of that moisture's coming up into new mexico and ars parpz could have flash flooding to deal with over the next couple of days. an area of low pressure over northern nevada and idaho slowly moving into montana during the day today. rainfall, not so much in phoenix. the outskirts of town. we will see tropical downpours the next two days around tucson and phoenix. the rest of the pacific northwest looking just fine. that's a look at your wednesday

a little warm in yuma, 97. talk more about that tropical downpour in arizona expected for your thursday. that's coming up a little later. >> bill, thank you. the fed speaks, sort of. and why freedom of speech isn't necessarily the best idea while you're on holiday. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, right now he's down and about as low as can be. at least one son just proudly standing by him. also, the twins clench, yankees increase their lead. and what do you get when you combine tiger woods and michael jordan? you're watching "early today."

>> good morning, and welcome back to "early today."

i'm amara sohn. here are some of your top headlines this morning -- a new book by bob woodward claims there have been big battles in the white house over the president's strategy in afghanistan. some doubt the plan will work. woodward says president obama himself has been at odds with military commanders. including general mike mullen and general petraeus. pastor terry jones may have canceled his plans for burn a koran day, but he's still going to get a bill for it, a $200,000 bill, from the city of gainesville, florida, for beefed up security. he calls this ridiculous and says it would bankrupt his church. the gainesville, florida, pastor says he doesn't know how much legal authority the city has to force the church to pay. a mayor has been arrested along with others charged for paying themselves huge salaries,

some topping $800,000. the district attorney called it a case of "corruption on steroids." and an english novelist sailed in 1912 claim herself new book reveals the truth behind the ship's sinking. saying her grandfather maintains that a panicking sailor who misunderstood an order sailed the ship near the iceberg that eventually sunk it. he thought it would put colleagues out of work so he covered it up. how wall street kicked off the day -- the dow opens at 10,761 after gaining 7 points yesterday. the s&p lost two points and the nasdaq fell 6. taking a look at overseas trading in tokyo, the nikkei dropped 35 points.

but in tokyo, the hang seng was up 45. markets got a brief boost from the fed's pledge to prop up the economy yesterday. after a one-day interest rate meeting, the fed kept rates unchanged near zero but failed to offer specifics when it might roll out fresh stimulus measures promising only, "additional accommodation to support the recovery." initially, stocks and treasuries rallied, but the momentum quickly faded. meanwhile, the housing sector slid after reporting a jump in august home construction boosted mostly by the volatile building of multifamily homes. overseas, italian authorities seized more than $30 million from a vatican bank account tuesday, as part of an investigation into a possible money laundering scheme by top church officials. the vatican said it was both perplexexexed twitter's security team apologized after its website was

hacked yesterday morning causing pornographic web pages to pop up when some users moused over its site. no information was compromised. keep an eye on adobe systems today. shares of the softwaremaker plunged after low forecasts. finally -- travelers beware. a couple staying at the golden beach hotel in england was kicked out after the second day of their prepaid three-day stay after allegedly posting a negative comment on trip adviser. incidentally, trip advisers says 50% of the hotel's reviewers give it a, "do not recommend." in baseball, twins claim the central and yankees and phillies open up some distance. plus an amazing trick shot goes in, but is it a hole in one? or worth two points? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. even though we're heading into fall, the summer heat refuses to go away.

your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the yankees jumped all over the visiting

tampa bay rays last night to seize control of the american league east. here's mario with an early look at all of your sports headlines. good morning. with only 11 games left in the season, it appears that the yankees are finally pulling away in the a.l. east. bombers jumping all over the rays. in the big apple, number 27 for the swisher king. 1-0, yanks. a few batters later, lance berkman joins the fun. a wall banger to second. here come two more runs. that's all they would need. yankees score five in the first. they go on 8-3 and now have a 2 1/2 game lead in the east. twins and minnesota, a white socks loss, putting minnesota on top in the eighth inning with an rbi single. danny valencia beats the throw home. twins up by four. twins are the first team to advance to the postseason with a 6-4 comeback over the indians. the phillies number is now down to 6. they beat the braves. roy halladay becomes the first

phillies pitches in 20 years to win over 20 games. and jason, proving why he's worth it all giving the phillies the win. 5-1. they now lead the n.l. east by five. the season cannot end soon enough for the mets. they lost their fourth in a row last night. sanchez smashing a three-run homer in the fifth adding insult to injury. joe torre has no interest in managing the mets next season. not a good day for the metropolitans. marlins win, 5-2. finally -- tiger woods is arguably the best golfer. michael jordan, the best basketball player, but had you combine the two sports, neither can match the talent of john jones. the teenager shows off his skills with what he calls a basketball hole in one. pretty cool stuff. the video doesn't appear to be altered, but you be the judge. that's a look at sports talk "early today." >> very nice shot there. who is getting bounced out of japan?

who got eliminated from "dancing with the stars"? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, it's getting to be that time of year and the pumpkins are getting ready for their close up. you're watching "early today."

welcomes back on this wednesday morning. flash flood watches issued for much of arizona, new mexico and the four corner region. disturbance coming through. heavy downpours today and

tonight especially that could deal with flash flooding maybe even in the cities themselves. as far as what we're deal wig elsewhere, turned out to be a nice late summer, early fall day. 90 in vegas today. cooler for you. medford looks nice. a peek into thursday. most locations okay. the next system comes into the pick northwest. showers and cool weather. only low of 60 there for portland and seattle. if you're watching on kget nbc 17 bakersfield, california. looking for a little rest and leigh relaxation but vacation isn't in the budget, head to the greenacres community center of for free relaxation and meditation classes. that's your pick event of the day. not bad. >> we could all use a little zen in our lives. continue to you think? >> a little free vacation. >> that, too. now here's a look at your early morning entertainment headlines --

jodie foster is standing by mel gibson after a nasty battle with his ex-girlfriend. foster tells the october issue of "more" magazine that gibson is "the easiest, nicest person i've ever worked with." "the second i met him i said i would love this man for the rest of my life." they may love david hasselhoff in germany, but last night he was the first to be eliminated from "dancing with the stars." finally, paris hilton has been booted out of japan. hilton was denied entry into the country just days after she pleaded guilty for a misdemeanor drug charge in las vegas. yesterday officials delayed hilton's entrance while looking into her case. she was forced to schedule a scheduled tokyo news conference to promote her fashion and frag gance lines. to avoid talking about paris hilton, going through a tumultuous time in my life i

would want jodie foster on my side. >> out of nowhere. >> didn't know they were close frenz. >> i never heard of the magazine she was quoted from, but -- >> a great actress and a fw person. this comes to us from wvva in west virginia where there are definite signs that fall is right around the corner. a couple of farmers are showing off the ultimate halloween accessory. three massive pumpkins that weigh between 500 and 950 pounds. the giant gourds are still on the vine. gaining around two pounds each day. next month, they will be entered in an annual pumpkin festival. by then the growers hope their pumpkins tip the scales at more than 1,000 pounds. wow. salivating at all the pumpkin pies you can make out of that. i'm amara sohn and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on this nbc station.

going green is a bubbly experience in paris. parisians can now get bubbling bottle from a fountain. france is the world's largest consumer of bottled drinking water, which in turn creates about 262,000 tons of plastic garbage. authorities hope the sparkling idea will help cut waste. the fountain injects carbon dioxide into plain, chilled tap water. one film crew in israel proved there's no escaping the camera's lens. transmitting the first underwater live hd broadcast as a part of a photography fair from inside the red sea, set the stage for a live underwater interview. spectators were able to keep dry

while at the same time enjoying the underwater art from afar. amateur aviators are getting a bird's-eye view in china. the china birdman competition attracted aviators from all over the globe to test skills and homemade flying machines. pilots propelled themselves over a cliff, some soaring 200 feet. not bad. the event honored china's first aviator who built his first plane in oakland, california. i'm afraid of heights. anytime you say home made airplanes, i don't think i would do that. >> that last one is a hang glider. that was cheating. it's a lot more fun when they take the swan and nose dive. >> as long as they have the water. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. actor kevin costner returns to capitol hill to testify about the gulf oil disaster. costner owns a company that has machines it makes that separates

oil from water. he's already been to the house to talk about the technology. believe it or not, fall is already here. the new autumn season officially arrives at 11:09 p.m. eastern time. and it's world car-free day. everyone is encouraged to put down those car keys and cycle, lock or take public transportation instead. all day long, you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with nbc "nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. alaska's gop senator lisa murkowski talks about launching a writing campaign after losing the state's primary. and an exclusive interview with the legal team representing mel gibson's ex-girlfriend in a bitter custody battle. now, keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm amara sohn. thanks for watching "early

today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com